Box-car door



June 3, 1930.

J. HOLDERNESS Box CAR noon Filed July 12,-1928 Ha/c/erness Patented June 3, 1930 PATENT OFFICE JOHN HOLDERNESS, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS BOX-GAR DOOR Application filed July 12, 1928. SeiiaiNo. 292,102.

," ordinary outside doorJ'Another object of the'invention is to provide such a door that is adapted to hold the grain without any other boards being usedfor that purpose, and arranged so that it can be easily opened when it is desired to do so to unload or fill the car,

or for other reasons. To this end, one of the objects is to provide'a, door or closure which comprises a plurality of sections arranged so that the sections can be removed one at a 2 time, thus materially decreasing the size of the door portion that is to be removed" and also decreasing the door opening which results when a section is removed. Furthermore, the sections arearranged vertically so thatthe top onecan be removed without interference with the others. This allows en i trance tothe upper portion of the car, and

ordinarily to the top of the grain, without disturbing the contents of the car and also allows the grain to be gradually removed from the car by removing one section of the door at a time. c it 4 Another object of the invention is to provide means for supporting the door when it is in a closing position and alsoto provide suitable guiding means for the door, or for thevarious sections as they are being removed. Another objectis to provide a door which may be stored within the car entirely 40 out of the way andin such amanner asto avoid any possibility of the door being driven shutor sliding shut, as the train is moving. Provision is also made for distributing sec tions of the door both sides the doorway it when desired Other objects of the invention will be apparent from a consideration of the accompanying drawing and thefollowing description thereof:

Of the drawing Fig. 1 isan elevation of a 0 portion of a side of a car when viewed from the inside of the car, showing a door and other mechanism which embodies the features of my invention; Fig. 2 is vertical sectional view along the line22 of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 isan enlarged section along line,33 ofFig. 1; and Fig. 4 is a further enlarged section along the line 4-4 of Fig. 1.

Although the door and guiding means which I have invented is suitable for other purposes, yet it is adapted for use in freight railroad cars and more particularly to the ordinary box cars. While it is suitable for such uses in cars which will carry freight of any description, yet it is particularlyadapted. foruse in box cars which are designed to convey grain or similar material. While I use herein the term door when describing my invention, yet it does not necessarily function as an. ordinary door, but is in the nature of an inner closure of the ordinary car door opening, and is designed to be used in conjunction with the ordinary outside door. By the use of my inner closure, the outer door is never interfered with by the load in the car, and hence "can be freely opened or closed at all times. i

The door 10 which I disclose as illustrating my invention in this instance comprises 4 sections 11, although it is to be understood that more or fewer sections can be used if desired. In fact a single section may comprise the entire door, if desired. Each of the sections is provided adjacent to each upper corner with a roller projecting bolt head 12, or other similar device. An ordinary nonrotatable head can be used if desired, or if preferred, a roller mounted on a shank may be used, Theseheads areadapteate play in vernal slots 13, formed as inner wall. so

of the car, one slot for each side of the door. These slots may be formed in any suitable manner. I prefer for the purpose to use Z shaped bars 14, so as to provide overhanging flanges 15 for the slots for the purpose of holding the bolt heads in the slots.

As will be seen, each door section 11 is first placed in position by elevating it and passing the heads 12 in the upper ends of slots 13 and then allowing the section to move downwardly to the floor of the car. Handle slots 16 are provided in the sections for convenience in-liandlingthem. The heads of the next section 11 are then placed in the slots in a similar manner and allowed to move downward and so on until the sections are all in position. The doorway 17 is then entirely closed. The lower ends of the bars 14 extend to the floor and a similar bar 18 is positioned above the doorway coming in contact with the upper ends of the vertical bars 14, so that, when the door sections are in position, the doorway is entirely closed and grain cannot leak out.

. With this arrangement it is evident that the door sections may be entirely removed from the opening by elevating. them until the bolt heads 12 pass out of the-slots 13, and the sections may then be disposed of in any suitable manner. However, I prefer to provide means for disposing of the sections within the car where they will be supported and will not interfere with the loading or unloading of the car. F or such purpose, I provide, by the use of similar Z bars 19 and 20, vertical slots 21 at one side of the doorway, the distance between the slots 21 being the same as the distance between the slots 13. With this arrangementthe sections can be elevated from slots13 and passed over to the slots 21. Ohviously thetop section of the doorway would, in this way, become the bottom section of the slots 21. A

To facilitate the sliding of the sections so that the bolt heads 12 will pass easily from the slots 13 to the slots 21, I provide a similar Z bar 22 connectin the upper ends of the inner bars 19 and 20. I also provide a short bar 23 positionedover the upper ends of the adjacent bars 14 and 19. By this arrangement it is necessary for the operator only to pass the left hand bolt shank 24 on to the bar .22. and then, supporting the right-hand end of the door section, slide the section to the left until the heads pass into the respective slots 21. The section is then moved downwardly ,so far as the grain in the car will allow; and, obviously, with the grain as a bufier, no harm can result in allowing a section to fall freely.

Although by this arrangement the entire door can be removed from its closing position to the supporting slots 21, yet I prefer to provide similar supporting slots 25 on the other side of the doorway by the use of similar Z 1 bars 26 and corresponding upper bars 27 and 28. By this arrangement the sections may be shifted to the right or left as the exigencies of the case may warrant; or some of the sections can be shifted to the right and the others to the left.

As a convenience in shifting the sections, I prefer to provide the upper Z bar 30 which extends from the top of the left-hand vertical bar 20 to the top of the right-hand vertical bar 26. When this bar 30 is provided, obviously, the sections cannot be removed en tirely from the slots; but by means of this bar, the bolt head shanks are at all times guided by a slot from which they cannot be removed.

Any suitable means can be provided for preventing thelower edges or the lower sections from swinging inwardly. I prefer to provide each section with a flange 32, extending across the lower edge. The flange of the lower section is adapted to enter a slot 33 in the door sill, and the other flanges are adapted to overlap a flange 84 on the upper edge of the next lower section. In this manner, the cracks between the sections, and between the lower section and the floor are closed so that grain cannot leak out, and the lower sides of the sections cannot swing inwardly.

In order to lock the door in place, any suitable means may be provided, but I prefer for the purpose a bolt 40, which passes through the wall 41 above the door with the head 42 of the bolt rotatably, but non-slidably mounted in a recess in the wall, where it can be rotated by a suitable wrench. This bolt is threaded into a sleeve 43, fixed in a locking bar 44 which is slidably mounted in the wall and may, by rotating the bolt, be forced in- Wardly over the door. By this arrangement, the door may be locked against any ordinary opening tendency and anyone not having suitable wrench for the purpose of unlocking it. As the bolt 40 is located adjacent the upper part of the car, it cannot be conveniently reached by any ordinary marauder.

It will thus be seen that I have provided means for closing the doorway as much or as little as may be desired, and thus preventing the freight from coming against the outsi e door, or leaking out of the doorway. The closure thus obviates the need of boards or other means, such as are frequently used in temporarily closing freight car doorways. The sections are permanently and conveniently accessible to the freight handlers, and may be easily replaced or removed as the car is being loaded or unloaded, and the sections will prevent leakage of grain, flour or other material and will also prevent rain from penetrating into the material.

I claim as my invention:

In a car, means for closing the doorway of said car, said means comprising a pair of vertical guideways, one of the guideways being fixed inside of the car and at each side of said doorway, a second pair of vertical guideways fixed to the inside of the car at one side of said doorway and spaced apart substantially the same distance as said first mentioned guideways are spaced, a closure for the doorway having guide means fixed thereto and adapted to coact with said vertical guideways, and a horizontal guideway vfixed to the inside of said car and extending over the upper ends of all of said guideways and having slots therein registering with said vertical guideways.

In testimony whereof, I hereunto set my hand. 7

JOHN HOLDERNESS. 

